A Life-Altering Decision
by MerlinPsych
Summary: When Juliet investigates the murder of a young girl's parents and discovers Yin's involvement she feels an immediate connection to her. Desperate not to doom strange young Lily to a life as a lonely orphan who will never get adopted, she takes matters into her own hands. But how is she supposed to break it to Shawn that she's suddenly a mother? Shules!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: A response to the "The Real Reason She Left Miami" challenge by xxvintagexglamxx on Psychfic. I did not use it as the reason she left, but yes! Juliet is suddenly a mother! How is this going to work out? You'll see... ;D Disclaimer: I actually do own Psych, so... (APRIL FOOLS!) XP Don't be this crevice in my arm! That review box is just waiting to be fed! Thanks for reading!

* * *

Shawn frowned at Juliet, suddenly concerned. "Hey," he muttered, "What's up? You seem really distracted today…"

"I am not distracted!" she protested, "Just… busy."

"Mhmm…" Shawn replied, unconvinced.

She frowned back at him. "I have a really big case right now, Shawn. I'm afraid I can't just sit here and amuse you right now."

"Let me help then," Shawn offered, with a bit of a smirk.

Juliet's eyes widened, and she nearly fell out of her chair in alarm. "Umm, no, actually… You really shouldn't get involved in this case…" she said quickly.

Shawn gave her a quizzical look. "Why not?"

"You haven't been hired, it's kind of dangerous, and maybe I just want to do something myself, _just this once!"_ she cried, voice rising a little bit towards the end.

"Alright! Alright!" Shawn cried, defensively, "I just wanted to check that you were okay…"

Juliet sighed, eyes softening. "I'm fine Shawn… just… Go hang out with Gus or something. Sorry I snapped at you, I'm just sort of stressed out right now."

Shawn frowned again. "If you're sure you don't need any help…"

She smiled, weakly. "I'm sure. Thanks though."

Shawn stood and walked slowly away from her desk, looking back at her in obvious worry and confusion.

She breathed out a sigh of relief when he was finally gone. _What had she done?!_ There was no way she was going to make this work!

She banged her head onto her desk in despair, trying to work it all out somehow. Soon, however, she heard an awkward cough behind her.

"O'Hara…" Lassiter muttered, hesitantly, "Everything alright?"

She took a deep breath before looking up at him. "…Yeah. It's just… How can I do this, Carlton?! How could I ever tell Shawn the truth?!"

He shifted uncomfortably and quietly replied, "You'll figure it out… I know it's going to be different, but everything will turn out okay… You're going to be a great mother."

She wiped her eyes and smiled. "But… It's so sudden! I mean, what I am supposed to say?! I really want this to work, for her sake, but if I just come right out and tell him what if he gets scared off?! You know how Shawn is about responsibility… I'm not sure he's ready."

"Well, it was your decision to make, not his," he pointed out.

"Like it or not, Carlton, we're together now. Shawn and I can't do things like this to each-other… But what was I supposed to do?!" Juliet cried, panicking slightly.

"Look. I understand why you did it. I mean, after Yin killed her parents and left her all alone; of course you felt a connection-"

"But did I have to adopt her? Oh, what am I saying? I'm not changing my mind…" she fretted.

"O'Hara, what you did took a lot of courage and a lot of responsibility, but I do believe you did the right thing," Lassiter assured her.

"Really?"

"Yes, really," he said, "Lily needed you. She's sixteen… There's no way she would have been adopted at that age and with her dark history. Things like that scare people. They don't want to believe they're real."

"I know… She's really such a sweet girl, even if she is a bit… unique," Juliet sighed, "I couldn't just leave her to be an orphan forever! Especially after the case…"

"I know," Lassiter replied, "Nice work, by the way. I had no idea that her parents' murders were Yin's work! Spotting that was very clever."

She smiled again. Irritating as he could be, Carlton was like a brother to her and could really cheer her up when necessary. "Thanks. But still, what about Shawn?"

"You know how to talk to him better than I do," he pointed out, "But if he gives you a hard time, I'll shoot him."

Juliet rolled her eyes. "Please don't… Should I just… give it time…?"

Lassiter shook his head. "I can only see that going badly. Lily is already going to be strange to him and you don't need to tell him you've been lying to him."

"She's so… different... What if they don't get along?" she asked, but after an awkward pause, she laughed. "Wait. This is Shawn we're talking about!"

"Didn't you just speak to him?" he asked, suddenly, "What did you tell him?"

"He asked what was wrong and I said it was a case," she explained, guiltily.

"The aftermath of a case is more like it," he snorted.

Then they noticed Chief Vick walking towards them and struggled to act natural.

"Detective Lassiter, can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked.

He nodded. "Talk to you later, O'Hara."

She nodded back and returned to her real day's work as they headed off- preparing for Lily's arrival.

_How am I _ever _going to make this work?! _ She still had to wonder.

* * *

A/N: Confused? That's okay. You'll learn more about Lily and the case about her poor parents very soon! I'll try to update quickly!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hi! Sorry it's been a while, things are really busy right now... But here's the next chapter! Thanks for reading! Tell me what you think!

* * *

Lily sat silently in the back of Juliet's little green bug, chocolate brown eyes fixed straight ahead as if in a trance, slightly misted over.

"You okay?" Juliet asked, concerned.

Lily gave a start at the sound of her voice. "Hmm? Yeah… Uh… Fine."

"You don't look fine," Juliet pointed out.

"Uh… Sorry. It's not your fault. I was just… thinking," Lily sighed, still a little distractedly.

Juliet smiled, sadly. "About your parents?"

She shrugged. "This is just kind of making it more real for me, you know?"

Juliet nodded, looking a bit guilty. "I'm sorry, Lily."

Lily shrugged again. "It wasn't your fault…"

"Yin was a horrible man," Juliet told her.

"Yeah… He was," Lily agreed, softly.

They sat in silence for a while, both taken back to their respective experiences with the serial killer.

_The door creaked open and the figure approached, stepping into the room with his knife raised high, glittering silver like the moon and spattered already with blood. _

_Lily squeezed her eyes shut, terrified, curled up tightly on a shelf inside the closet where she hid, trying to hold back a sob as he searched her room, hand clasped firmly over her mouth as she tried to hold her breath to keep it from betraying her position. _

_The figure didn't appear to see her, although its search was thorough. Lily watched from her perch as he looked: under the bed, checking the windows, behind the door, even in the closet below her shelf… _

_The figure gave a low, horrible chuckle, and finally left the room._

_Lily stayed frozen until she heard the front door creak shut._

_She let out a horrified gasp as soon as it was gone, and raced into her parents' room, to see both lying in a pool of blood. She collapsed beside them and burst into tears, utterly hopeless._

That was all she could remember. The rest of the night had been swallowed by her adrenaline as if by a giant black hole, and then her memories jumped straight to when she was found late the next day, even then as if obscured by a fog.

She knew she'd never be the same again.

Lily shook her head. _Now is not the time to dwell on such things…! _

_I can do this,_ she thought, taking a deep breath, running her hands nervously through her blond hair, streaked with hot pink. _A whole new life… Whole new start…_

Who was she even kidding? She was terrified. She really had no idea whatsoever what life she was getting herself into.

Juliet shot another anxious look back at her, clearly worried about Lily and she faked a small smile back. After all, Detective O'Hara had shown her nothing but kindness… Why should she be forced to worry about her?

Lily frowned, lost in thought. She would miss her old home… But it was so swamped down in dark memories that perhaps this was better…

There was nobody who could possibly understand what she had been through that (literally) dark and stormy night.

Suddenly, Juliet "Here we are!" she exclaimed, "Home sweet home!"

Lily looked out the window of the car, eyes drinking in every detail.

It was… a house.

It was a surreally anticlimactic moment, considering this day would change her life forever.

Lily contemplated her situation silently. It was so strange, coming home to a place she'd never been to before, coming "home" to a whole new world, leaving everything she'd ever known behind… Her house, her school, her friends… It was a brand new start.

She could be a brand new person, if she wanted, except that in such a hard time she didn't care enough to make an effort.

She shrugged to herself and hopped out of the car, staring at the house as if not fully comprehending it.

"Do you need help with your bags?" Juliet asked.

"Sure," Lily replied, passing her a suitcase, "Thanks."

Juliet smiled, and led her up the front steps and into the house.

Lily looked around, quietly. It still wasn't quite sinking in that she would be living here now. It felt so unreal…

"I have your bedroom set up a little, but I wanted some of the personal choices to be yours…" Juliet explained nervously as she led her upstairs to have a look around.

The room was pretty plain, like Juliet had been saying, but appeared to be nice enough. It was of a decent size, with a bed in the middle and a wooden desk and chair off to the side. Lily was pleased to see a couple of bookshelves seated by her dresser. She would definitely be needing those…

"Thanks," Lily said, smiling, "This is perfect."

"Oh good! We could pick out paint and some other stuff soon, just to make it more like home…" she said, anxiously.

"Yeah, that sounds fine," Lily agreed, setting one of her bags down next to the bed. "Really, it does. Thank you so much for all of this… I can't even believe anyone would do all of this for me…"

"It's no problem, really," Juliet assured her, but suddenly her phone rang and when she took it out and noted the caller ID her face paled.

"Shawn…!" Juliet said, awkwardly into the phone, glancing over at her.

"Hey Jules," Lily could just barely make out over the other end, "Just wanted to call and check up on you after this morning; make sure you're okay…"

Lily regarded her foster parent, curiously. _Who's this? And what happened this morning…?_

Juliet looked back at her, biting her lip as she thought for a second, apparently unprepared for this Shawn person's call. "Uh, yeah. I'm fine… What are you up to?"

_Quick subject change? This could be interesting…_

"Oh, I'm just about to go out with Gus, pineapple smoothies. You in?" Shawn asked.

"Actually, I'm still a little busy with the case right now…" Juliet said, quickly.

Lily blinked. What case? Was Juliet… lying? That didn't sound like her… What was going on?

"Why don't you take a little time off?" Shawn asked, concerned, "You really sound like you need it…"

Juliet sighed, and glancing once again at Lily said quietly, "Actually, Shawn, I'm sorry… There's something I wanted to tell…"

"What?! No way Gus, no way! I am the Mario Kart _master!_ You cannot just 'blue shell' me like that!" Shawn shouted suddenly, cutting her off.

"Pay attention then," another voice, presumably Gus, said smugly.

"Oh no! You did not just… What?! How did you even… I call a rematch!" Shawn whined.

"Oh, it is on, Shawn!" came Gus' voice.

"You bet it is! Sorry, Jules… Can I call you back? I have important business over here right now…" Shawn said, distractedly.

"Actually, Shawn I…"

"Rainbow road?"

"You know dat's right!"

Suddenly the phone was hung up.

Lily stared at her foster mother.

Juliet set the phone down, looking both really relieved and extremely stressed out.

"So…" Lily asked, "Who was that?"

"Um, nobody important…" Juliet replied, distantly.

"Really? Because it sounded important…" Lily pressed, smiling.

"Well it wasn't."

Lily grabbed her wrist. Juliet jerked her hand back quickly.

"Your pulse tells me otherwise," she pointed out.

Juliet rolled her eyes. "Fine. That was my boyfriend, Shawn."

Lily blinked surprised. _Her what…?_

Juliet stared at her, as if gauging her reaction.

"He sounded like a ten year old," Lily remarked, trying to lighten the mood.

Juliet snorted. "Yeah… He's pretty much always like that… You should have seen him when he lost his DS on our vacation!"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Vacation? So you're pretty serious then…"

"Yeah, kind of," Juliet said, wincing as she correctly anticipated Lily's next logical remark.

"So… Does he know about me?"

Juliet put her head in her hands, and groaned, frustrated. "No! Not yet, but-"

"So that's why you were lying…" Lily replied, smirking. She loved figuring things out like this.

"Yes! What do I do?!" she cried, dropping to sit down on Lily's bed.

Lily sat down beside her, thoughtfully.

"Well…" she said after a while.

"Well…?" Juliet asked.

"I have no idea," Lily replied, pleasantly.

Juliet moaned.

"Why didn't you just tell him in the first place?" asked Lily, sensibly.

"You heard him…" Juliet fretted, "He won't take on a responsibility like this…"

"Well, come on!" Lily said, trying to keep her positive, "He _has_ to be an adult _sometimes…_ What does he do?"

"He's a psychic detective."

That threw Lily off a little. "…Seriously?"

"Seriously," Juliet replied.

"…I retract my last statement." Lily admitted, wincing.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: YAY! I finally got this chapter to work! Sorry it's taken so long. It's been very interesting to try to write this since I rarely have OCs as major characters, but I think I'm beginning to figure out Lily. Anyway, thank you all for reading! Enjoy and please tell me what you think. :)

* * *

Juliet knew that she really should tell Shawn about her new charge, but somehow, no matter how many times she told herself what she needed to do, she couldn't actually set her plans to tell him in motion.

She presently sat at Lily's desk, trying desperately to write out a reasonable way to explain to her boyfriend that she had become a mother without ever saying a word about it to him as Lily herself got to unpacking, an amused smirk hidden at the corners of her lips.

"Okay," Juliet sighed, "How about this: 'Dear Shawn, I regret to inform you that I haven't been entirely honest about'-"

"Really?" Lily asked, rolling her eyes, "'I regret to inform you?' Are you telling him about what you did or breaking the obvious news that he didn't get into his choice university?"

Juliet groaned. "Well how am I supposed to say it then?"

"How about, 'Hi Shawn, I adopted a daughter and didn't tell you because you are a psychic detective who still plays Mario Kart and whines like a child when he's losing?'" Lily suggested.

"Lily!" Juliet cried, "This is serious!"

Lily shrugged. She found it sort of amusing to see her foster parent struggling over something as silly as a relationship. She had never really understood romance herself. What she did understand were books. Books brought you to a wonderful, free place where you didn't need to care about what anyone thought, but could allow yourself to be absorbed completely into an adventure.

She took some favorites out of her bag and set them on her bookshelf as carefully and delicately as though the treasured things were made of glass.

"Okay, okay," Lily finally sighed, noticing that Juliet was still waiting for a response, "What else do you have?"

She coughed, awkwardly, "Hey, Shawn, remember when we talked about that fleet of pugs? Well, I have something much better-"

Lily blinked. "And now you sound like a commercial."

Juliet crumpled up the letter into a ball and tossed it into the already full trash bin, missing her mark as if to add insult to injury. "Okay, fine, how about, I… um…"

"You could talk to Gus," Lily suggested, "It sounded like he knew him well. He could possibly give you some tips." She carelessly folded a comfy black hoodie and flung it into her drawer, where it promptly sagged over into an unfolded mess.

"He'd tell Shawn himself," Juliet sighed, "Besides, Gus wasn't told either and Shawn shouldn't be the last to find out."

Lily shrugged. "I guess."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Juliet jumped to her feet in a panic. Lily returned to her suitcase and took out another stack of clothing.

"Hurry!" Juliet cried, "Hide or something!"

Lily just stared at her. "Seriously?"

"You have to work with me here, Lily! I'm sorry but I haven't figured this out yet and-"

Lily put her clothes away and walked away without a word, heading for the stairs.

_"Lily!"_ Juliet hissed. She knew that the girl could be difficult sometimes, but why did she have to be now? _What on earth is she doing?!_

Lily reached the front door that by now was being knocked on in a musical sounding rhythm. "It's Shawn!" she called up to Juliet without even the slightest need to check.

Juliet paced the top of the stairs, anxiously. "Pretend we're not home!"

Lily rolled her eyes dramatically and opened the door.

Shawn paused mid knock, staring at the unfamiliar teenage girl in front of him.

"Hi," she said with a smile, "I'm Lily, come on in!"

Shawn frowned in confusion, "Um, okay…"

He followed Lily into his girlfriend's house, still without the faintest clue as to who he was following.


	4. Chapter 4

** A/N:** Okay! Here's the next part! Thank you all so much for your wonderful support! Your reviews were great! (Like I said, I'm still slightly new to this OC thing, so I'm glad Lily seems to be working for you.) Anyhow, this was kind of a difficult chapter, so I hope you like it! Writing a serious Shawn is hard! Please tell me what you think!

Oh, yes! And to my fellow Americans: Happy Independence Day! :D America rules! Here's to the land of the free and the home of the brave! :)

* * *

"Hey Jules!" Shawn called, playfully, following after Lily, "When did you get a mini butler?"

Lily rolled her eyes again. He was just as stupid as she'd expected.

"Shawn…!" Juliet answered him awkwardly as she came down the stairs, "I… uh…"

Shawn stared at her, concerned, "Hey, are you okay? You look a little bit pale."

"Oh, um yep, I'm fine!" Juliet responded with a nervous little laugh.

"Well, I'm here because you said you had something to tell me earlier," Shawn explained.

"Oh… Yeah. I did…" Juliet said quietly.

There was an awkward silence as she struggled to find the words to explain her predicament.

"Well?" Lily asked, eyebrow raised expectantly.

"I… It's not important right now," Juliet said before she could stop the words from slipping out, "I barely even remember what I needed to say."

Shawn and Lily stared at her, Shawn in confusion; Lily in disbelief.

"Aren't you going to introduce us, then?" Lily pressed her.

"Yeah Jules," Shawn agreed, "Who is this new butler of yours? Part of that case?"

"Yes," she replied, relieved, and then, frowning "Well… sort of…"

Shawn frowned back at her, "Jules?"

"Shawn," Juliet blurted out, "There isn't actually a case!"

"What?" Shawn asked, "What do you mean? Like, was it a hoax or-"

"No," she admitted guiltily, "There never was a case. I lied to you. I'm sorry."

Another silence entered the room as this sank in.

"You lied to me?" Shawn asked at last, a little bit hurt, "Why?"

"I… just didn't want to tell you the real reason I've been so on edge lately. I'm so sorry Shawn! One lie just led to another and…" she groaned in frustration, "But no more secrets. I'm going to tell you now."

She took a deep breath and shook out her hands, ready to begin.

Lily shifted uncomfortably, suddenly realizing that she didn't want to be in a room so prickly with emotions. She really didn't want Shawn staring at her right now as the truth came out… She wasn't ready for all of these changes! It was simply too much!

"I'm just gonna go now…" she cut in awkwardly before running up the stairs to her room perhaps a little too suspiciously fast. But what did it really matter? Shawn would know why, soon enough…

All Lily could hear from where she lay face down on her bed was the soft murmuring of voices. Unable to reign in her curiosity, she proceeded back to the door, cracking it open slightly so she could see what was going on.

At first the voices downstairs were too soft to hear, but it was obvious when Shawn turned and stared open-mouthed up the stairs at her that her foster parent had broken the news.

"Y-You didn't even… WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!" Shawn cried, obviously overwhelmed by this shocking revelation.

"I-I don't know," she practically whispered, "It was just so sudden, and I didn't know what to say, and come on… You know how you are-" suddenly realizing what she'd said Juliet clapped her hand over her mouth in horror.

"What do you mean?" Shawn asked in a dangerously quiet voice, "How I am?"

_"Well,"_ Juliet replied, annoyance creeping into her voice as she slowly grew more and more frustrated, "You know… You… You just can't take things seriously Shawn! You're funny and amazing and I love you to pieces but you're hardly mature enough to… to… You're not ready-"

"What are you saying?!" Shawn asked, his voice rising in anger, "You don't think I'm mature enough to be a father?!"

Juliet's composure melted. "No… Wait! Shawn! I didn't mean it that way!" she cried.

"I think I know exactly what you meant!" Shawn yelled back, storming back to the door.

Lily watched the scene in front of her unfold in a state of shock as Shawn ran furiously out the door, Juliet staring desperately after him.

She raced down the stairs to her foster parent's side, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Um… Detective O'Hara?" she asked, awkwardly, still uncertain how she was supposed to address her now.

As Shawn threw open the door to his blue car one more sadly soft protest escaped Juliet's lips:

"I was just afraid it'd scare you…" she whispered, but Shawn didn't hear and soon he was driving away, leaving the two of them staring after him.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Sorry it's been a while! My computer got a virus, so I haven't had Microsoft Word for weeks...

I finally caught up on Psych! OMG! How could they leave us with such a terrible cliffy?! Did it get purchased by the BBC or something?!

Anyway, thank you all bunches for reading this! Your reviews make my day :) I can't believe school is about to start again already! :/ I'll try to keep the updates coming anyway.

Yay for breaking the hearts of characters! This is going to be a long, hard road for everyone... Including me. Psych characters don't like showing serious emotions too often, do they? Makes it an interesting challenge to write for them. (Especially when I enjoy stomping on my poor characters' emotions in my writing as a general rule.) :D

* * *

_How can this be happening?! _Shawn thought in despair, _Is this some kind of nightmare?!_

The fake psychic's head swam dizzyingly in shock and confusion as he tried to make himself come to grips with what had just occurred.

_No… This isn't right! How could she do this? How could she lie to me?! WHAT DO I DO NOW?!_

Shawn sank down in the driver's seat of the Blueberry, shaking his head helplessly. He had been driving aimlessly for some time now without any real direction, swerving randomly through the city… Just like his thoughts were. But finally he had come to a stop: A stop he couldn't see ever coming to an end.

He had no idea what to do, what he wanted, or even what he felt. Somehow everything suddenly felt huge and impossible and he had no idea how to handle the intense tide of emotions pulling him down, as if there was a black hole deep in his chest. Even doing nothing felt wrong. He wanted to take action, but even the thought of any sort of action hurt. He was utterly broken.

_To think that this morning all I had to worry about were the perils of Bowser Castle…!_

Shawn's head slumped forward into his hands and before he knew it his eyes started tearing up.

_Maybe Jules is right… I'm _not_ ready for this! How could_ I_ ever handle being a dad? I don't even get along with my own dad! I don't even have a stable job! _

But how could he give up Jules? Because that was surely what needed to happen otherwise. And sure, she had just hurt him beyond belief, but she was still the only person Shawn had ever felt so strongly about… ever. He felt even more strongly about her than pineapples! All he could see whenever he closed his eyes were her smile. All he could hear was her laughter… All he could feel were her lips against his…

He really, truly loved her. But did she even trust him? She clearly didn't believe he could ever be anything but childish and immature, which granted, he was entirely (and he took the greatest pride in that), but how were they ever supposed to take the next step in their relationship when she saw him as nothing but the class clown?

He quietly fingered the ring in his pocket. Despite Gus' warnings he still carried it with him, just in case. What if they actually were on a Jumbotron _with_ Shamu jumping over them?! Could he really afford to miss that perfect opportunity to propose?

Then again, could he really take it, after what had just happened? Come to think of it, Jules would probably think carrying the ring around was irresponsible too…

Shawn shook his head and just let his mind go blank, feeling far too overwhelmed.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Hooray for more feels crushing! :D Here's the next chapter, and this time you get more of Gus! Tell me what you think. :)

* * *

Back at the Psych office, Gus dialed Shawn's number several times with news of a new case, but his best friend didn't answer. After a few hours he couldn't help but feel a bit worried.

Hadn't Shawn said he was just going to pop in to check on Juliet? How long could that possibly take?

Shawn didn't usually ignore him like this. Something was wrong. (Besides, Shawn did have his car.) He had to go investigate!

_Oh... wait. SHAWN! My car! So now he's left me stranded! That's just brilliant…_

Somehow Gus just didn't quite fancy a ride on Shawn's motorcycle. He didn't exactly want to try Shawn's other old standby either. Asking Henry for a ride without him would just feel too weird.

He sighed and set off walking, unable to be bothered at this point. He would just have to locate his friend (and his car) the old fashioned way.

When Gus finally found Shawn a few hours later, he was shocked to see that he was slumped over looking broken in the driver's seat of the Blueberry which was parked in front of a little coffee shop. For a moment, he was sure he was dead. (It wasn't as if such things never happened to him, after all…)

"Shawn!" Gus cried, frantically, slapping the windows with his palms, "SHAWN!"

His friend slowly looked up and rolled down the window, looking so lifeless and confused that Gus scarcely recognized him.

"Gus…" he whispered, "What do I do?"

"What's going on?!" Gus asked, "You look awful! What happened to you Shawn?"

"Jules…" he sighed, wincing.

"Did she break up with you?" Gus guessed. They had seemed okay just that morning, hadn't they…?

"Not exactly," Shawn laughed, bitterly, "Well maybe. It's actually worse… No, better… Actually, I don't really know what happened."

"Well what could have?" Gus asked, still rather confused, "Unless, you know, you told her the truth about being psychic… Or you watched that awful, inaccurate excuse for a movie "Alpha and Omega" with her… Or accidentally proposed to someone else… Or…"

Shawn didn't laugh, or even defend the animated film, which Gus took as a very bad sign. "Gus," he interrupted him in a deadpan, "She adopted a sixteen year old daughter."

Gus gasped. "WHAT?! You have _got_ to be kidding me!"

"She didn't even _tell_ me…" Shawn continued, voice rising slightly in annoyance.

"You're not kidding?" Gus repeated.

"Of course not, Gus!" Shawn cried, "Would I really lie about something like that to my oldest and blackest friend?! We didn't even get to name her Starfish…"

"I-I don't quite know what to say…" Gus admitted, "I'm sorry. But I thought honesty was super important to Juliet?"

"It is," Shawn agreed, darkly, "But apparently not as important as protecting Lily from being forced to have someone like me as a father."

"She really said that?" Gus asked, shocked and appalled.

"Yes- well… No," Shawn admitted, "Not in exactly that fashion. She actually said I wasn't ready for the responsibility. Can you believe it?!"

Gus winced. "Well…"

Shawn stared at him, open mouthed. "GUS!" he whined, "You're supposed to be on my side here!"

"I am on your side," Gus promised, "But… I suppose that I can see where she's coming from."

Shawn let out an exasperated little sigh.

Gus just shook his head. "So… what are you going to do?"

Shawn shrugged, "What can I do? She obviously doesn't want me involved…"

"Well…" Gus said, softly, "Do you _want _to be involved?"

Shawn frowned, but after a moment replied, "Of course, Gus. I don't like this kid business, but I simply can't give Jules up."

Gus took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be an easy situation for anyone, "Even if it means, you know… growing up a little?"

Shawn stared right back at him, a fiery determination in his eyes. "Gus, I'm not sure if I'm parent material or not, but there's no way I can give up on Jules. Even if it means changing everything that I am, I at least have to try."

Gus gave him a concerned look. "You don't have to give yourself up and change everything just to be a parent, Shawn."

Shawn gave a short, humorless laugh. "Who are we kidding, Gus? I'm not that kind of guy."

Gus just stared at him for a moment, before saying, "Well, father or not, you're my best friend, and I don't want to lose that."

"Of course not, Gus!" Shawn cried, "Don't be a lethargic duckling! I'm not going to have to change everything! It's just… most of me."

Gus winced, unable to bear the thought of how badly Shawn was thinking of himself when he was usually so self-assured. It was clear that this was having a seriously huge effect on him.

"I'm not Peter Pan, Gus…" Shawn said, quietly, "Someday I have to grow up."

"So… what does this 'growing up' entail?" Gus asked with an ominous sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"I don't know," Shawn sighed, "What do girls think grown up _is?! _I guess I'll have to help with Lily, get a job… get a car… Be," he shuddered, "Responsible…"

"Are you sure you _can?"_ Gus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll do whatever it takes…" he replied, "The question _is_, does Jules even want me involved?"


End file.
